Cutaneous innervation of the upper limbs
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Cutaneous innervation refers to the area of the skin which is supplied by a specific nerve.
Modern texts are in agreement about which areas of the skin are served by which nerves, but there are minor variations in some of the details. The borders designated by the diagrams in the 1918 edition of Gray's Anatomy, provided below, are similar but not identical to those generally accepted today.
Arm and shoulder
- Supraclavicular nerves (yellow)
- Axillary nerve (blue). Also Superior lateral cutaneous nerve of arm.
- Inferior lateral cutaneous nerve of arm - Near blue "axillary" area, but actually branches from radial nerve. Most modern sources distinguish the superior and inferior, but some still include a single "lateral brachial cutaneous nerve". )
- Intercostobrachial nerve (purple)
- Medial cutaneous nerve of arm (yellow) - labeled as "medial brachial cutaneous".
- Posterior cutaneous nerve of arm (pink) - not explicitly distinguished from that of Posterior cutaneous nerve of forearm on diagram, but is often distinguished in modern terminology
Forearm
- Lateral cutaneous nerve of forearm (purple) - labeled as "lat. antibrach. cut.". Branch of musculocutaneous nerve.
- Medial cutaneous nerve of forearm (green) - labeled as "medial antibrach. cutaneous". Branch of medial cord.
- Posterior cutaneous nerve of forearm (pink) - labeled as "dorsal antibrach. cut." Branch of radial nerve.
Hand
- Superficial branch of the radial nerve (yellow)
- Median nerve (pink)
- Superficial branch of ulnar nerve (blue)